Lunar science enters a new, active phase with commercial launches of landers to study the solar wind and peer into the dark ages of the universe

NASA will conduct scientific experiments on the Moon in 2024 for the first time since 1972. And thanks to new technologies and public-private partnerships, these projects will open up new realms of scientific possibility. As part of several projects starting this year, a team of scientists, including myself, will conduct radio astronomy from the South Pole and the far side of the Moon.

NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Service Program (CLPS) uses unmanned landers to conduct NASA science experiments from the Moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The CLPS program is different from past space programs. Rather than NASA building the lander and operating the program, a commercial company would do so in a public-private partnership. NASA has identified about a dozen companies as vendors for the moon-bound landers.

NASA buys space on a lander to fly science payloads to the moon, and companies design, build and insure the lander, and contract with rocket companies for launches. Unlike before, NASA is one of the customers and not the only driver.

CLPS launched

The first two CLPS payloads are scheduled to launch during the first two months of 2024. The astrobotics payload launched on his January 8th day, then fuel problems cut the trip to the moon short. Next up is the Intuitive Machines payload, scheduled for release in mid-February. NASA plans to land him several more times in the coming years, two to three times a year.

I am a radio astronomer and co-investigator on NASA’s ROLSES program, also known as the Photoelectron Sheath Radio Observation on the Moon. ROLSES was built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and led by Natchimuthuk Gopalswamy.

ROLSES equipment will be available with Intuitive Machines in February. Between ROLSES and his LuSEE-Night, another mission scheduled for the far side of the moon within two years, our team expects he will be NASA’s first two radio telescopes by 2026. is scheduled to land on the moon.

moon radio telescope

The Moon, especially its far side, is an ideal place to conduct radio astronomy and study signals from extraterrestrial objects such as the Sun and the Milky Way. On Earth, the ionosphere, which contains the Earth’s magnetic field, distorts and absorbs radio signals in the FM band and below. These signals may be scrambled or may not reach the Earth’s surface.

On Earth, television signals, satellite broadcasts, and defense radar systems also emit noise. To conduct more sensitive observations, we must travel far from Earth into space.

Scientists call the moon a tidal lock. One side of the moon always faces the Earth, the side of the “moon dwellers,” and the other side, the far side, always faces away from the Earth. The moon has no ionosphere and there are about 3,000 miles of rock between Earth and the moon’s far side, so there is no interference. The radio is quiet.

The first mission with ROLSES, scheduled to launch in February 2024, will collect data on environmental conditions near the moon’s south pole. On the moon’s surface, the solar wind directly impacts the moon’s surface, creating electrically charged gas called plasma. Electrons lift off the negatively charged surface and form a highly ionized gas.

This doesn’t happen on Earth because the magnetic field redirects the solar wind. However, the moon does not have a global magnetic field. Low-frequency radio telescopes like ROLSES could measure that plasma for the first time, potentially helping scientists figure out how to keep astronauts safe on the moon.

As astronauts walk around the moon’s surface, they pick up various electrical charges. It’s like walking on a carpet with socks on. Sometimes when he reaches for the doorknob, sparks come out of his fingers. The same kind of discharge from electrically charged gas occurs on the moon, but it could be more harmful to astronauts.

Radio emissions from the Sun and exoplanets

Our team also plans to use ROLSES to observe the Sun. The sun’s surface emits shock waves, sending out high-energy particles and low-frequency radiation. We measure these emissions using radio telescopes, observing bursts of low-frequency radio waves from shock waves within the solar wind.

It also plans to study Earth from the moon’s surface and use that process as a template for studying radio emissions from exoplanets in other star systems that may harbor life.

Magnetic fields are important for life because they protect the planet’s surface from solar/stellar winds.

In the future, our team would like to use a special antenna array on the far side of the Moon to observe nearby star systems known to host exoplanets. If we detect the same kind of radio emissions that come from Earth, we know the planet has a magnetic field. The strength of the magnetic field can then be measured to determine whether it is strong enough to protect life.

moon cosmology

The Night Lunar Electromagnetic Experiment (LuSEE-Night) will fly to the far side of the Moon in early 2026. LuSEE-Night marks the first attempt by scientists to perform cosmology on the moon.

LuSEE-Night is a novel collaboration between NASA and the Department of Energy. The data will be transmitted to Earth using Lunar Pathfinder, a communication satellite in lunar orbit funded by the European Space Agency.

Radio waves on the far side of the moon are uniquely quiet, making it an ideal place for space observations. During the two-week lunar night that occurs every 14 days, there is no radiation from the sun and there is no ionosphere.

We want to study an unexplored part of the early universe called the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages refer to the period around the time when the first stars and galaxies formed in the Universe, but this is beyond the scope of what the James Webb Space Telescope can study.

During the Dark Ages, the universe was less than 100 million years old, but today it is 13.7 billion years old. During the Dark Ages, the universe was filled with hydrogen. That hydrogen is radiated across the universe at low radio frequencies, and when a new star lights up, it ionizes the hydrogen and creates a radio signal in the spectrum. Our team hopes to measure that signal and learn how the universe’s earliest stars and galaxies formed.

There is also a lot of new physics that we could potentially study in this last unexplored cosmological epoch of the universe. We investigate the nature of dark matter and early dark energy and test fundamental models of physics and cosmology in uncharted epochs.

That process is scheduled to begin in 2026 with the LuSEE-Night mission, which is both a fundamental physics experiment and a cosmology experiment.